What is tableau
Tableau is a powerful tool used for data analysis and visualization. It allows the creation of amazing and
interactive visualization and that too without coding. Tableau is very famous as it can take in data and
produce the required data visualization output in a very short time. Basically, it can elevate your data
into insights that can be used to drive your action in the future.
OR
Tableau is a great data visualization and business intelligence application that can be used to report and
analyze massive amounts of data. Salesforce purchased Tableau in June 2019, an American firm founded
in 2003. It enables users to build various charts, graphs, maps, dashboards, and stories for visualizing and
analyzing data in order to aid in business choices. Tableau offers several unique and fascinating features
that make it one of the most popular business intelligence (BI) applications.
1. Tableau is the Fastly growing and powerful data visualization tool. Tableau is a business
intelligence tool which helps us to analyze the raw data in the form of the visual manner; it may
be a graph, report, etc.
2. Example: - If you have any data like Big Data, Hadoop, SQL, or any cloud data and if you want to
analyze that given data in the form of pictorial representation of data, you can use Tableau.
3. Data analysis is very fast with Tableau, and the visualizations created are in the form of
worksheets and dashboards. Any professional can understand the data created using Tableau.
4. Tableau software doesn't require any technical or any programming skills to operate. Tableau is
easy and fast for creating visual dashboards.
Tableau Features
Tableau supports powerful data discovery and exploration that enables users to answer
important questions in seconds.
No prior programming knowledge is needed; users without relevant experience can start
immediately with creating visualizations using Tableau.
It can connect to several data sources that other BI tools do not support. Tableau enables
users to create reports by joining and blending different datasets.
Tableau Server supports a centralized location to manage all published data sources within an
organization.
Note- Extension of tableau file is .twb.
Why use Tableau?
Tableau is the fastest and most powerful visualization tool. It is very easy to use. There are no complex
formulas like Excel and other visualization tools. It provides the features like cleaning, organizing, and
visualizing data, it easier to create interactive visual analytics in the form of dashboards. These
dashboards make it easier for non-technical analysts and end-users to convert data into understandable
ones.
o Ultimate skill for Data Science
o User-Friendly
o Apply to any Business
o Fast and Easy
o You don't need to do any Coding
o Community is Huge
o Hold the power of data
o It makes it easier to understand and explain the Data Reports
Values in Tableau
There are two types of values in the tableau:
Dimensions: Values that are discrete(which can not change with respect to time) in nature called
Dimension in tableau. Example: city name, product name, country name.
Dimensions are highlighted by Blue Color
Measures: Values that are continuous(which can change with respect to time) in nature called
Measure in tableau. Example: profit, sales, discount, population.
Measures are highlighted by Green color.
Advantages of Tableau
Quick calculation- All the calculations on the tableau done by the backend, so it is relatively
faster than any other tool.
Interactive dashboards– Tableau dashboards are very interactive and easy to draw.
No manual calculation- All the calculations are done by the tableau only. There is no manual
calculation, but in some specific cases, we used calculated fields for calculation.
A large amount of data- Tableau can handle a large amount of data. Different types of
visualization can be created with a large amount of data without impacting the performance of
the dashboards.
Disadvantages of Tableau
High Cost- Tableau is a paid tool for visualization, and it is a reason why people are not using
tableau so much.
Static and single value parameters- Tableau’s parameters are static and always single value can
be selected using a parameter. Whenever the data gets changed, these parameters need to be
updated manually every time.
Limited Data Preprocessing- Tableau is strictly a visualization tool. Tableau Desktop allows you
to do very basic preprocessing.
Tableau Product Suite
Product Version Features
Tableau Desktop helps to create
reports, dashboards, and stories
Tableau using different charts and graphs.
Paid
Desktop The workbooks and the dashboards
created using Tableau Desktop can
be shared locally or publicly.
Tableau Paid Tableau Server is mainly used in
Server organizations to share workbooks
and reports that are created using
Tableau Desktop applications across
different teams. You can ask
questions with natural language, and
you will receive AI-driven
explanations for your data.
The Tableau Online analytics
platform is hosted on the cloud, and
it helps users publish dashboards
and share discoveries with anyone.
Tableau
Paid You can connect to cloud databases,
Online
like Amazon Redshift and Google
BigQuery. It automatically refreshes
data from web apps, like Google
Analytics and Salesforce.
Tableau Public is free to use, but the
workbooks created cannot be saved
locally. They can be saved to
Tableau Tableau's public cloud, which
Free
Public anyone can access and view. Due to
the lack of privacy options, any user
can download and access the files
saved to the cloud.
Tableau Reader is a free desktop
Tableau application that enables users to
Free
Reader open and interact with reports built
using Tableau Desktop.
Tableau Mobile provides interactive
previews where users can check
Tableau data and reports anytime from
Free
Mobile anywhere. You can select, filter, and
fine-tune the data with a tap of your
finger using the mobile app.
Data Types in Tableau
Tableau primarily supports seven different data types. The data type indicates the type of information
stored in a particular field.
Data Type Icon
Text (string) values
Date values
Date & Time values
Numerical values
Boolean values
Geographic values
Cluster Group
